From Comics To Cinema: Bringing Beta Ray Bill Into 'Thor: Ragnarok'

Welcome to another edition of our new series From Comics To Cinema where we discuss the impact comics old, current, or future could have on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We have so far been focused on current and upcoming series that Marvel has, but today we are going to journey back a bit to discuss the possibilities for Thor’s next movie. Thor: Ragnarok will not only have Thor team up with fellow Avenger, Hulk, but will also mark the MCU debuts for Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Hela (Cate Blanchett), Skurge (Karl Urban), and the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Clearly this is a packed movie, but I am hoping one more character gets his introduction as well.

Beta Ray Bill is a creation of Walter Simonson’s Thor run and made his debut in “Thor #337” in 1983. The Korbonite warrior was on a collision course with Earth, when Thor intervened. The two battled it out, only for Beta Ray Bill to eventually wield Mjolnir. As he was then mistaken by Odin to be his son, Thor and Beta Ray Bill battled once again to see who should be the true owner of the magical hammer. Beta Ray Bill was once again victorious and instead of choosing to keep Mjolnir for himself, offered it back to Thor in exchange for his own hammer, Stormbreaker.

As you can tell, this is a very fun story and I have been dying to see Beta Ray Bill on the big screen for the last few years – it was why I was so hopeful that he already debuted in Guardians of the Galaxy. Only to have my hopes crushed by Gunn. Realistically, however, next year’s Thor: Ragnarok is the better option anyway, so once again I am getting my hopes up that he’ll make an appearance. Beta Ray Bill could be included in a couple of different ways, but I think the recent confirmation of Surtur’s appearance gives a great entry point for the character.

The way I envision it is Hela conquering Asgard is not the first city that she came to overtake. Instead, after Thor made peace across the nine realms in-between The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World, Hela began to make her way across the galaxy, defeating race after race, including the Korbonite’s. Hela used Surtur to destroy their home world and the defeated Beta Ray Bill eventually was captured by Grandmaster. As we already know, Hulk, Thor, and Valkyrie are set to fight in his games and, ideally, that is when they meet Beta Ray Bill. He tells them about his past with Hela and Surtur and agrees to help Thor and friends escape. Thor is then grateful and when he makes his journey to have a new Mjolnir constructed, which is rumored to be destroyed, and has the Stormbreaker constructed for Beta Ray Bill as a thank you.

I’m not sure how likely Beta Ray Bill’s inclusion in general is to happen, and my pitch is probably less likely than those chances, but Taika Waititi‘s unique visual style and sense of humor could be the perfect match for Beta Ray Bill and give us a possible different avenue to explore in the future. Let us know if you would like to see Beta Ray Bill in an upcoming film in the comments below and if you are not familiar with the character, sign up for Marvel Unlimited and check him out.